Freightliner building new manufacturing plant in Mexico
Freightliner LLC announced last
month that it will construct a new
$300 million truck manufacturing
plant in Saltillo, Coahuila, in northern
Mexico.
The 1-million-square-foot facility
will produce Freightliner and Sterling
brand trucks. The plant could produce
up to 30,000 trucks annually, and em-
ploy up to 1,600 production and man-
agement personnel. Groundbreaking is
set for the second quarter of 2007,
with start of production planned for
early 2009.
The Saltillo plant is the second
Freightliner manufacturing facility to
be located in Mexico, joining the San-
tiago Tianguistenco plant, which pro-
duces Freightliner-brand heavy- and
medium-duty trucks.
At the same time it was announcing
expansion in Mexico, Freightliner
warned its unionized employees at
Portland’s Swan Island facility of a
major layoff this spring. “It’s at least
500 employees, and possibly as many
as 800,” said Joe Kear, a business rep-
resentative of Machinists District
Lodge 24. IAM Lodge 1005 repre-
sents approximately 1,400 of the 1,700
unionized workers in Portland, where
they build Class 8 Freightliner trucks,
Western Star trucks and military vehi-
cles. Other unions at the Portland facil-
Unions in global fight against Alcoa
Trade unions from four nations are
mounting a combined campaign against
U.S. aluminum giant Alcoa as part of an
emerging cooperation among unions.
Union officials from Brazil, the U.S.
and Britain met in Melbourne just be-
fore Christmas to discuss the campaign
with colleagues from the Australian
Workers Union (AWU) and the Interna-
tional Metalworkers Federation (IMF).
“Our plan is to start bargaining with
Alcoa on a global basis,” said AWU
Vice President Paul Howes. He said that
when the AWU, which has unionized
all of Alcoa’s plants in Australia, sought
to discuss the implementation of a new
Alcoa policy on working hours; it was
told the policy had been decided at its
U.S. headquarters and could not be ne-
gotiated locally.
“The biggest effect will be when
they start using their clout in one coun-
try to affect an outcome in another,”
Howes said.
One of the major difficulties unions
face in dealing with multinationals is
that they operate in countries that have
different economies and labor stan-
dards. Alcoa, for example, is fully
unionized in Australia, compared with
only half of its plants in the U.S.
Conditions in Alcoa’s Mexican and
Guyana plants are way below stan-
dards in Australia or the U.S.
ity include the Sign Painters and Paint
Makers Local 1094, Teamsters Local
305, and Service Employees Local 49.
Their labor agreement expires July
1.
In October, nonunion white-collar
employees at the Portland headquar-
ters were offered voluntary buyouts.
There are about 1,900 employees
there. It is not known how many em-
ployees volunteered.
Eight hundred employees — mem-
bers of the Canadian Auto Workers —
at a St. Thomas, Ontario, plant already
have been told that they will be laid off
starting in March. That plant manufac-
tures Sterling brand heavy- and
medium-duty trucks.
Freightliner officials say as many as
4,000 production and related workers
could be laid off companywide.
The downsizing has further ramifi-
cations for the Machinists Union. Con-
solidated Metco’s (ConMet) Rivergate
and Clackamas, Oregon, plants have
laid off approximately 170 Machinists
(85 at each location), due in part to the
Freightliner slowdown. ConMet man-
ufactures aluminum hubs and spring
brackets for Class 8 trucks.
A Freightliner press release said the
expansion in Mexico is not connected
to the layoffs. Freightliner said the job
cuts stem from an industry-wide de-
cline in new trucks redesigned to meet
federal emissions standards. The new
trucks, because of their added technol-
ogy, cost more than those sold in pre-
vious years.
Kear confirmed that new Environ-
mental Protection Agency standards
will add about $10,000 to the cost of
building a truck engine. The new envi-
ronmental regulations are meant to re-
duce pollutants from diesel engines.
Kear also said that Freightliner
plans to yank production of all
Freightliner brand trucks from Port-
land. “They can build trucks cheaper
in Mexico,” he said.
That will leave production of the
Western Star brand truck and military
vehicles in Portland. Workers currently
turn out 32 Western Star trucks a day
and nine military trucks a day.
Freightliner has five plants in North
and South Carolina. Some are union,
represented by the United Auto Work-
ers. And some are nonunion.
Freightliner President and CEO
Chris Patterson in a press release said
the new facility in Mexico “under-
scores our confidence in the NAFTA
truck market, and our bullish mid-term
outlook for industry recovery post-
2007. Frankly, we were not able to
produce what we could have sold in
2006 due to capacity constraints. We
expect another surge in customer de-
mand in 2009 prior to the next round
of EPA emissions regulations, and the
construction of this new plant will en-
sure that we are fully prepared.”
Freightliner LLC is the leading
medium- and heavy-duty truck manu-
facturer in North America. Freightliner
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produces and markets Class 5-8 vehi-
cles and is part of DaimlerChrysler’s
Truck Group, the world’s largest com-
mercial vehicle manufacturer.
The company’s truck operations,
which include Portland, Oregon-based
Freightliner, turned a record profit of
$705 million in the third quarter, up
from $449 million a year earlier.
Global giant formed
by British, German
and two U.S. unions
British, German and American
unions are working to forge a pact that
will create an international union with
more than six million members.
Amicus, the U.K.’s largest private-
sector union, has signed agreements
with the German engineering union,
IG-Metall, and the United States’
United Steelworkers and Machinists
Union in an effort to prevent companies
playing off their workforces in different
countries against each other.
The move is seen by union leaders
as the first step toward creating a single
union that can present a united front to
multinational companies. Amicus is it-
self planning to merge with the Trans-
port & General Workers Union in May
to create a two-million-member labor
organization. Between IG-Metall’s 2.4
million, the USW’s 1.2 million and
730,000 at the Machinists, a merger
would create an organization with some
6.3 million members.
Derek Simpson, general secretary of
Amicus, said: “Our aim is to create a
powerful single union that can tran-
scend borders to challenge the global
forces of capital.”
Bureau of Labor
& Industries
Wage & Hour
Compliance Specialist
Salary: $2,771-$4,032/month
This full-time, limited-duration po-
sition is located in Portland. This
person will investigate allegations of
violations of prevailing wage rate
law on public works projects
through interviews, on-site inspec-
tions, evidence evaluation, and fact-
finding; prepare investigative reports
and enforcement remedies; negoti-
ate settlements; work with Depart-
ment of Justice to prepare cases for
administrative hearing or court of
law; and provide technical informa-
tion/interpretation of laws, rules,
and regulations governing wages
and working conditions to individu-
als and groups. A construction re-
lated background is preferred, but
not required. For announcement
#LE060397A and application mate-
rials, call 971-673-0783 or visit
www.oregonjobs.org. Closing date
for all applications is Jan. 22, 2007.
Glaziers, Carpenters, Laborers, Electricians, Sheetmetal Workers, Floorcoverers, Bricklayers, Cement Masons, Roofers, Asbestos Workers, Family, Mill Wrights, Painters, Elevators, Plasterers
JANUARY 19, 2007
NORTHWEST LABOR PRESS
PAGE 3